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Data shows widening gap between average bottle price for cork and alternative closures

According to research from on-trade analysts CGA Strategy, bottles closed with cork account on average for over £5.38 more per bottle than those with screwcap and other closures.

The research looked at sales figures for the top 50 still wine brands by volume in the UK on-trade.
Analysts found there is a widening price gap between closure types – and also volume figures which point to more cork-closed wine generally being sold.
In the first instance, the data shows that the price of cork-closed wine has increased by over 11% since 2015 in comparison to +6% for artificial-closed wines.
Secondly, volume figures for cork wines appear to have grown by 48% since 2015, compared with +10% for artificial closures.
Value sales for cork-sealed wines have also accelerated past screwcap and others, according to the data.
In the past year, value sales of cork have risen by 7% compared with +9% for artificial closures.
Similar results are reflected in the off-trade.

Research conducted by Nielsen on the top 1,500 wine brands in the UK showed value sales for cork-stopped wines are growing by 6.1% year-on-year and carry a £1.52 higher average selling price per bottle than those with artificial closures. To read the original article sourced from Harpers Wine & Spirit Directory click here.

A recent report published on 25th August in The Drinks Business magazine says that a study of consumer preferences in the three most important world markets for wine: China, USA and Germany – found that natural cork closures still reigned supreme. As part of the study, the wine research specialist asked participants whether they agreed with the statement ‘I like buying wine with this closure’ and ‘I don’t like buying wine with this closure’ and also recorded those that did not mind either way.
Despite the growth in the number of non-cork closures as well as screwcaps - Wine Intelligence has found that talk of the demise of cork is premature. Cork still seals an estimated 60% of the world’s wine bottles, amounting to around 13 billion a year.

In its recent study, Wine Intelligence reported that China and the US were the countries that expressed the strongest preference for buying wine under natural cork, with 61% of participants from both nations agreeing with the statement that they liked buying wine with a natural cork closure. They were closely followed by Germany, where 60% of those surveyed said they enjoyed purchasing wine under natural cork. For more information click here.

Americo Amorim often called ‘The King of Cork’ and reputedly Portugal’s wealthiest man died aged 82 in Portugal on 13 July 2017.
Americo Amorim was the fifth of eight children born to a modest family in Mozelos, northern Portugal in 1934. He worked for the family cork company Corticeira Amorim founded by his grandfather in 1870 and built it into a world leader in cork production accounting for about half of global output and annual sales $650 million.
He also created a conglomerate company Grupo Amorim which expanded into wine production and tourism as well as holding significant stakes in Portuguese financial, telecom and energy companies.
The cork oak which can be harvested for its bark every nine years without harming the tree is particularly suited to the soil and climate of Portugal which accounts for 60% of world production. The cork industry in Portugal employs over 15,000 people either working in the forests or in factories transforming this unique natural material into bottle stoppers and thousands of other products that benefit from its unique properties*.

A growing list of vineyards, restaurants, wine bars and pubs are now saving their used wine, prosecco and champagne cork stoppers for recycling with Recorked UK, the UK’s leading cork recycling scheme. The list now includes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Canteens in Bristol and Plymouth, a number of leading UK wine producers, and many others.

Recorked is the UK’s only natural wine cork recycling programme handling millions of used corks every year, which are then resold to artists, crafters, schools and companies who are looking to reuse corks in arts and craft projects.

Sanjay Aggarwal, founder of Recorked UK, says "As a social enterprise we operate ‘not just for profit’ but as a growing alliance of businesses and individuals, working together to help the environment by collecting and re-purposing natural wine corks. We donate at least £0.01 to our nominated charities for every cork supplied and we also supply free corks to schools and other charities for use in craft projects. We are currently looking for more pubs, bars, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, vineyards and wine merchants to join us as partners by saving their used wine corks which we then collect and recycle. We are also looking for paid volunteers to be Brand Ambassadors and help establish more collection partners throughout the UK".

To see the many uses that used corks can be put to, visit Recorked UK’s site: www.winecorks.co.uk

Siesta Cork Tile Co of Croydon recently completed a contract to install traditional heavy density cork flooring at a leading City Bank HQ. Cork tiles 8mm thick were supplied and lightly sanded after laying and then sealed with "Bonakemi" traffic water based sealant.

Small cork trees are now being grown and offered for replanting by a commercial grower and garden centre in Hartfield East Sussex. Making a lovely open evergreen tree that can grow up to fifteen feet in height, the cork oak trees are available from Perryhill Nurseries Ltd at the address below or via their website: www.perryhillnurseries.co.uk

Laithwaites Wine Shops in association with the Portuguese cork producer Amorim have started a scheme to encourage consumers to recycle their used cork stoppers by placing them in special recycling bins located in all of their eleven shops mainly in the South East of the country with one shop in the West Midlands at Solihull. The company says the cork stoppers will be broken down into granules and used as moisture retainers on Laithwaite's own vineyard in Theale or given to groups and schools to make into new items such as cork boards for charitable sale.

Cork Industry Federation launches new educational website for Primary school teachers in the UK

Announcing a new on-line education resource for primary school teachers and children learning about sustainable development: www.planetcork.org"Come and join me on Facebook" says Corkie.

With real birdsong, colour posters of trees, birds and animals to download and mono versions for colouring too, the new Planetcork.org website has lots of useful information for teaching sustainability linked to one of nature's most beneficial trees. This website explains the unique features of the cork oak tree: its history, the geography of where the cork oak trees grow, and pictures of the flora and fauna that inhabit the cork forests around the Western Mediterranean Sea. PlanetCork.org explains the importance of trees generally in absorbing carbon dioxide and providing us with a valuable source of oxygen. It also explains why Cork trees are unique, are never cut down and provide us with a truly sustainable and renewable resource that is recyclable and biodegradable and has been used for millennia because of its special properties.

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The unique properties of cork stimulate children to think about its physical properties such as lightweight and buoyancy, compression and expansion and thermal absorption which is why this material has so many applications even today in buildings, car engines, spacecraft and of course cricket balls, badminton shuttlecocks and it can even be used to make fashion items such as handbags or I-phone cases. All is explained on the website and there are video films showing the cork harvest which can be viewed on Corkie's Facebook and YouTube page too.

To stimulate children further, the Cork Federation is encouraging teachers to send in pictures of items made from used corks and is offering as teaching aids a sample of cork bark as it comes from the tree showing how bottle stoppers are produced. Just send in your request with the postal address to: info@cork-products.co.uk

High quality products made from cork including handbags, accessories, furniture and flooring were displayed on the Cork Industry Federation stand at Olympia for the UK Aware - leading UK Green Lifestyle Show this month.

Speaking at The British Bird Fair in Rutland this month, Frank McClintock a distinguished British ornithologist who lives in Alentejo close to the cork forests of central Portugal called on UK consumers to support the cork industry.

He said consumers had it in their power to do this by insisting that the wines that they bought were sealed with a natural cork stopper rather than an aluminium screwcap or plastic stopper. He pointed out that the "Montados" as the cork forests are called in Portugal are a natural and vast carbon sink with the Portuguese forests alone draining 4.8 million tons a year from the atmosphere. The forests are also an economic mainstay of this deprived and under-populated area of southwest Europe, producing a crop that is organic and eco-friendly while at the same time providing a diverse habitat that sustains a rich and otherwise threatened wildlife.

The Save Miguel production a light-hearted film with a serious message about climate change and the social, environmental and economic benefits of using cork products won "Best original screenplay" and also collected the "People's Choice Award" presented by the festival's host city, Nuits-Saint-Georges in Burgundy, France. Almost 100 films from 12 countries were entered in the 2009 competition. Of these only 12 received awards which will be officially presented on 9 September at the French Senate building, Palais de Luxembourg, Paris.

Launched by the leading cork producer Amorim in August 2008, the Save Miguel campaign was viewed more than 450,000 times in just three months.

To view the Save Miguel video or for more information on the campaign please visit the website: www.savemiguel.com

LISBON - The WWF environmental group urged Portugal on Tuesday to expand its cork forests to act as a barrier against accelerating desertification of its south due to global warming.

Portugal is the world's largest producer of cork used in wine bottles but the density of trees in cork forests has fallen in recent years, threatening increased desertification as the dry, hot climate of the south moves north.

Because cork trees are not cut down and water is retained in the forests because of falling leaves, they are uniquely environmentally sustainable, WWF said in a study. The bark of individual trees is cut for cork only every nine years.

The group said in a study carried out together with the country's Higher Institute of Agronomy that a 20 percent expansion of the current area of cork trees could stop desertification at its current limits by 2020.

Failure to expand cork forests and tree density could raise desertification levels to more than one kilometre per year.

"Cork trees have every potential to act as a barrier to desertification," said Angela Morgado, communications and fundraising officer at the WWF in Portugal.

Due to cork trees' ability to grow in relatively dry climates and if average temperatures continue rising due to global warming, the WWF recommended that cork be planted further north in Portugal to reduce the threat of desertification.

Cork currently represents 2.7 percent of Portugal's exports and the cork industry employs up to 14,000 people.

New "Quick-fit" Cork Flooring system launched in the UK.

November 2007

GFIX floating floors are resilient, easy to clean, naturally allergy free and safe (extremely low VOC* content and contain an anti-microbial protection). There is a wide range of choice with over 50 different patterns and over 100 colours to choose from

Garden designers Louise Cummins and Caroline de Lane Lea produced the 'Suber Garden' at the 2007 Chelsea Flower Show to highlight "the threat to the natural habitats of the cork oak (Quercus Suber)".

Cork furniture, wall decorations and a real cork tree over 10 feet high brought from the Mediterranean showed the versatility of cork as a material.

Highlighting the sustainability and environmentally beneficial nature of cork, the designers of the Suber Garden say "Cork bottle stoppers account for almost 70 percent of the total value of the cork market. The increasing use of alternative wine stoppers is threatening the continued economic viability of cork forests, a valuable habitat for the endangered Iberian lynx, the Iberian eagle and the Barbary deer."

our members

The Cork Industry Federation is an association of companies involved in the importation, manufacture and distribution of cork products in the UK and for export. The Federation seeks to uphold quality standards within the industry and to promote the use of cork in its many different applications

about us

The Cork Industry Federation is an association of companies involved in the importation, manufacture and distribution of cork products in the UK and for export throughout the world.